Danish Modern Inspired Christmas Trees

The Embassy of Denmark's 5th annual Creative Christmas was a success due in large part to the imaginative work of the four design students whose fifty reinterpretations of Danish design icons put an inventive spin on the classic icon of the season, the Christmas tree. Half the fun was trying to match each tree to its Danish inspiration.

As mentioned earlier this week, the exhibit was both a Christmas celebration as well as a celebration of the Royal Danish Embassy's 50th Anniversary. Appropriately, the theme touched on both — challenging four design students to merge the idea of the traditional Christmas tree with iconic architecture, graphic, product, furniture, and textile designs of the Danish Modern period.

To exhibit the theme, the students, Malene Stilling and Mine Neumann from the Danish Design School and Anna Martin and Scott Clowney from the Corcoran (picture 10), based each of their 50 Christmas trees on a classic work of Danish design from the 50s and 60s. Among the many trees were works inspired by the likes of Danich icons such as Jørgen Høvelskov, Verner Panton, and Arne Jacobsen. Check out the pictures to see if you can match the tree to its iconic Danish modern inspiration piece.

As the first modernist embassy in Washington,designed by Architect Vilhelm Lauritzen, the Danish Ambassador's residence and Embassy was the perfect backdrop to the exhibition. You can take a peek of the home sans Christmas decor in our House Call: The Danish Ambassador's Mid-Century Modern Home.